Levy's High Five, October 28 - November 3

1) “Weekend” On a nondescript Friday night in Nottingham, England, two men -- solid, low-key Russell and edgy, outrageous Glenn -- meet, hook-up, and bond. It seems like love, but Glenn is leaving the country for a few years on the following Sunday, so every moment is freighted, anxious and dear. Near-newcomer Andrew Haigh directs from his own script, but it feels improvised much as do Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” -- almost like a documentary about the characters. Much credit to Tom Cullen as Russell and Chris New as Glenn; it’s no insult to say it almost doesn’t seem as if they’re acting. A deft, handsome, lifelike and precious little film. Living Room Theaters

2) “Drive”A terrifically well-made crime movie that’s part bloody film noir, part spooky fable of monsters and angels. A getaway driver (Ryan Gosling, icily stoic and still) on the verge of joining the stock car circuit becomes friendly with a woman (Carey Mulligan) with a husband in jail; when hubby gets out, he finds trouble, and when the driver tries to help, all hell breaks loose. Director Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson,” “Valhalla Rising”) has masterful control of the style and textures (which are nifty, if occasionally overindulged), and he pulls a rabbit out of his hat with a shockingly dark turn from Albert Brooks as a smoothie gangster. A jolt and a rush and a bold calling card from a major young filmmaking talent. Multiple locations

3) “Contagion"An all-star cast is thrown into a quick-paced, skillful and terrifying story about a deadly epidemic that races around the globe faster than the teams of virologists who are trying to isolate and kill it. Director Steven Soderbergh, in what he says may be one of his final films, deploys offhandedly masterful technique -- the camera is never in the wrong place, the pacing is exquisitely poised. And the likes of Laurence Fishburne, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jennifer Ehle infuse each moment with pathos, intelligence and poise. The spectacle is terrifying, but Soderbergh and company leaven the horror with the beauty of well-made art. If he’s leaving the cinema, it's a real loss. Cascade, Eastport, Fox Tower

4) “Moneyball” Yes, it’s a movie about baseball and statistics, but you needn’t be a fan of the former or a geek about the latter to enjoy it. Based on Michael Lewis’s bestselling book, director Bennett Miller’s follows Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager who embraced new ways of quantifying player productivity and turned a small-market team into a winner. Brad Pitt is charming and unaffected as Beane, Jonah Hill is winning as the nerd who teaches him new tricks, and there are several other nice, subdued performances. The baseball stuff feels very real, but Miller’s focus is on the human side, especially Beane’s relationships with his daughter, his colleagues, and his rivals. A gentle and well-made film. multiple locations

5) “The Rum Diary” More than a decade after playing the classically depraved Hunter S. Thompson character in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Johnny Depp plays a younger and more idealistic version of the character in an adaptation of Thompson’s early-‘60s autobiographical novel about newspapering, boozing and romancing in Puerto Rico. Bruce Robinson, whose “Withnail and I” is a beloved masterpiece of overindulgence and madness, directs his first film in nearly 20 years and does splendidly, creating a dreamily realistic period setting and building set-pieces that are alternately hilarious, otherworldly and forbidding. Throw in fine support from Michael Rispoli, Giovanni Ribisi and Richard Jenkins and you can, more or less, forgive the lax final quarter of the story. multiple locations